Our 13th Anniversary! Spent the night at Husk Restaurant remembering the last 13 years of marriage. Great meal, but better company. It's been a wild & crazy ride!
Love this women!
Love this women!
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Brothers
Love these kids! Even though they fight, rumble and roll sometimes - they are Brothers! Such a blessing to watch these kids grow.
Starting the weekend off right
Starting the weekend off right at the water park. It's always a vacation at the beach!"
Love you Gabe!
Love you Gabe!
Monday, June 24, 2013
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Happy Birthday, sweet Micah.
One year ago today, a little boy that had been chosen for us was born in a hospital in Birmingham. We never saw him or held him, but we loved him, named him, and prayed for him. Two days later, his Mom decided that he belonged with her and not with us. We were so brokenhearted. Thinking of little Micah Jonathan and his Mom today. Praying that they are safe and well, and that God would relentlessly pursue the hearts of that little family. I distinctly remember the lyrics to a song that I heard on this day last year. "The same God who led you in, will lead you out." And he did. . . just three days later in the same city of Birmingham, AL our sweet boy, Jeremiah, was born. "You have turned for me my mourning into dancing and clothed me with gladness. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!" Psalm 30:11-12 Happy Birthday, sweet Micah.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
The brutal winter of Charleston, SC
Enjoying one of the warm January winter day in Charleston. The temperature was in the upper 70's so we decided to head to Kiawah Island for a stroll on the beach.
Somehow a stroll on the beach automatically translates into getting wet, so we've learned to bring the swimming gear and hope they don't get completely soaked - even if the water is in the mid 50's.
Somehow a stroll on the beach automatically translates into getting wet, so we've learned to bring the swimming gear and hope they don't get completely soaked - even if the water is in the mid 50's.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
What a Year - 2012
So 2012 is officially in the books. It was a full year of obeying, stretching, learning and loving!
In short our year looked like this:
Obeyed - as we pursued adoption
Prayed - that God would provide us a Child
Cried - when we got word that we lost our first adoptive son when birth mom decided to keep her son.
Welcomed -Jeremiah Michael (AKA - Butter Bean)
Loved - Our new family
Prayed - for God to show us what's next
Visited - Charleston
Obeyed - Got new Job with new company
Cried - when we realized we'd be leaving everything we'd come to rely on and love
Moved - to Charleston
Searched - for a new church
Closed - on our old house in Greenville
Cried - as a family because we were leaving
Visited - with family over the Holidays which refreshed our spirits
Comforted - our son as we prayed with him to make new friends
2013
Anticipating - what God has in store for us
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Someone thinks he's big stuff
Thankful to have Jeremiah in our lives this year. Love this little guy, and love watching him grow.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
12/12/12 @ 12:12 pm
Today on 12/12/12 @ exactly. . . get this. . . 12:12 pm, our oldest son officially turned eleven. Happy birthday, Gabriel William DeWalk
We are so proud of you and the young man that you are becoming.
We are so proud of you and the young man that you are becoming.
A real tree?
We've never done the "real" tree, but since all of our decorations are in storage we thought we would make the best of things. It was a little strange getting a Christmas tree with it being 75 degrees, but we had a great time and made some fun memories.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Thankful for a new beginning - Charleston SC
We are all moved in down here and starting to settle in to our new life in Charleston, SC. It's hard to believe that we are really living here.
To be honest, I was kind of hoping that it was all just a "test", but in my heart I knew God was calling us out of our comfort zone and that we needed to follow him. As we started to pray about various opportunities one seem to stand out above the rest. As the interview continued our prayers became more focused and after a six week interview process I was offered a job in beautiful Charleston, SC. It's the kind of place where no one says - oh, you're moving there.
We still don't know why God called us to move here, but we are confident in His plan and purpose for this next chapter in our lives. We're nervous, scared, and sometimes lonely, but confident that He knows best.
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It's been a crazy year so far for the DeWalk family! I heard people tell me that the most stressful times are when you have kids, switch jobs and move. We did it all in just six months!
So this Thanksgiving we are thankful for new beginnings!
So this Thanksgiving we are thankful for new beginnings!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
First day of school 2012
It's hard to believe that Gabriel is in fifth grade this year and Christian is in first. Love these clowns!
[Click to Enlarge]
Thursday, July 12, 2012
The Next Step. . . TELL!!
That's what we heard next. . . TELL!! Tell your family, tell your community group, tell your closest friends. . . just TELL. God knew that the Enemy would be lurking around trying to convince us that we didn't hear what we knew we had heard. He knew that Satan would tell us that we couldn't start over with a newborn after 7 years. He knew that we were prone to believe the lies that we couldn't raise a brown baby. He knew that we would need people surrounding us to encourage and love on us through this process.
Some of the first people we told was the couple who led the Orphan Ministry at our church, Southside Fellowship. We had NO IDEA where to even begin. DSS? Private adoption agency?? Lawyer?? They gave us lots of options, and encouraged us to tell two more people. . . our boys.
One of the things that we had regularly prayed over the last several weeks was that God would give us unity in all decisions. This was the one decision that we didn't have unity on. I wasn't ready to tell the boys; Rick was. Jeff and Ashley have lived through this a couple of times, and were able to give us new perspective. At this point Gabe was almost 10 and Christian was almost 7. We realized that night, that the boys were going to remember this experience for the rest of their lives. The story of their brother and how he became a part of our family was going to be a part of them until forever. We had the potential to involve them in this really BIG God story. We decided we didn't want them to miss out on that.
Not long after meeting with J and A, we sat around the kitchen table and told the boys we needed to talk to them about something. Before we even got out what we were going to tell them, Gabe said. . . "We're going to adopt a new brother or sister, aren't we?". We were floored. We hadn't discussed this in front of him, and although we had talked about what adoption means several times in the past, we never gave him any indication that we were ever going to go down that road. It was as if God was even preparing his heart as he prepared ours.
There was some uncertainty in their attitudes over the next several minutes. I knew Gabe was thinking he was going to have to give up his newly acquired room (they had been sharing since we moved 3 1/2 years before). We assured him that no one was going to be giving up any rooms just yet. After that, he seemed a little more at ease. Christian was not at all convinced this was a good idea when we first told him. That is until we told him that he was going to be a big brother. Then he was "all in".
Several hours after we had told them, Christian and I were in the kitchen alone and I asked him how he felt about all of it. His response. . . "Well, it's going to be weird to have a brown baby". I laughed out loud and asked him why he thought that. He responded with, "Well, he's not going to look like us". That was true. He was deep in thought. (Remember that my sister and her husband have done foster care for the past several years, so brown babies have been a part of our family for awhile.) After he collected his thoughts he said, "I guess we have had lots of brown babies in our family before, and we love them just the same way". Lessons from a 6 year old. . . I'm never prepared for the way they convict me.
We decided to begin walking through two different doors. One with DSS and another with a non profit here in Greenville called Special Link. At this point, we were just one month into our journey. We loaded up the car for a trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving with a stack of paperwork to fill out on the way. Our last Thanksgiving as a family of four.
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